Recently, to achieve weight reductions and increased strength in the automotive body, carbon cloth constructed of vertically and horizontally woven vertical and horizontal strips which are assemblages of numerous carbon fibers is sometimes embedded in a matrix resin as a reinforcing material for automotive parts such as bumpers and hoods. However, because the carbon fibers making up this carbon cloth are ultrafine fibers, when immersed in the matrix resin within a mold, the carbon cloth may locally come undone and the vertical and horizontal strips may meander or twist, which sometimes compromises the appearance of the automotive part after it has been molded.
Acrylic/carbon sheets composed of such a carbon cloth set securely with an acrylic resin have thus appeared on the market. These carbon sheets harden almost completely at ordinary room temperature, but freely deform when heated to a temperature of 130 to 200° C. Hence, by heating this carbon sheet so as to deform it, placing the deformed sheet in a mold, then filling the mold interior with matrix resin after the carbon sheet re-hardens, a carbon fiber-reinforced automotive part can be cleanly molded without meandering of the vertical and horizontal strips.
However, because the acrylic/carbon sheet must be heated to deform it so that it fits into the mold, setting such a carbon sheet within a mold is very laborious and time-consuming, increasing the cost and time involved in the production of automotive parts.
Accordingly, a first object of the invention is to enable the clean and simple production of molded articles having a reinforcing fiber cloth embedded therein, and thus enhance the quality of the molded articles without increasing the production cost or time.
Automotive parts using this type of carbon cloth are often used in race-spec cars such as the F1 and so the very appearance of the reinforcing fiber weave pattern created by horizontally and vertically weaving together the vertical strips and horizontal strips has a considerable value, particularly among young people who like cars. Dress-up sheets with a simulation weave pattern printed on the surface and an adhesive layer on the back are commercially sold for this reason. These sheets are sometimes applied to the interior or exterior trim to “dress up” a car.
However, because dress-up sheets on which a weave pattern has merely been simulated by printing have a flat surface and lack the surface texture characteristic of carbon cloth, they have a cheap appearance being devoid of character. Moreover, the fact that an acrylic/carbon sheet does not deform unless heated at a high temperature makes it very difficult to use as a dress-up sheet for application to interior or exterior trim on a vehicle.
Accordingly, a second object of the invention is to make it possible to obtain dress-up sheets which include a real reinforcing fiber cloth and can be deformed with relative freedom without heating, and thus enable dress-up with a genuine weave pattern to be simply and inexpensively achieved.